Lord McKenzie of Luton: The Government welcome the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, Need not greed. It is important for government to strike the right balance between enforcing rules against illegal working to preserve the integrity of the welfare system, while at the same time ensuring that the system provides the right incentives for people to move from welfare into legal forms of work. The Government will therefore consider the findings in this report to inform future policy development. Reforms to the tax and benefit system by this Government have already improved substantially incentives for people to move from welfare and into work. Since 1997, more than 2 million more people are in legal work, and the UK employment rate is among the highest in the G7.

Lord Warner: The annual cost of the Department of Health's central contract to purchase copies of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin for each of the past five years is as follows.
	
		
			 Financial Year Cost (millions) 
			 2001–02 £1.350 million 
			 2002–03 £1.419 million 
			 2003–04 £1.435 million 
			 2004–05 £1.435 million 
			 2005–06 £1.435 million

Lord Davies of Oldham: The latest firm estimate of the backlog in street lighting is £1.65 billion, as reported to the Transport Select Committee in June 2004.
	For carriageways, footways and structures, we are actively seeking better information from local authorities and elsewhere. All local highway authorities have been encouraged to produce asset management plans for their roads. These will consist of inventories of stock, its existing condition, and target condition based upon desired service levels. These asset management plans, together with better information on the most effective remedial work and its costs, will allow more accurate estimates to be made of the funding required.
	The National Road Maintenance Condition Survey for 2005 showed that the interim target of halting carriageway deterioration by 2004 had been well achieved. There has been a significant improvement in road conditions in England since 2000, and the Government consider that they are still on track to meet the target of eliminating local highway maintenance backlogs by 2010–11.

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What are the risks associated with the use of cooked, washed and crushed shells from crabs and lobsters as fertiliser; and
	What is the most (a) sustainable, and (b) cost effective way of dealing with the waste constituted by crab and lobster shells; and
	Whether they believe that the animal protein contained in scallop shells poses a health risk; and whether scallop shells should continue to be covered by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy directive.

Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	In the absence of behavioural change, what would be the annual cost to the Exchequer of (a) abolishing lower rates of stamp duty on residential property transactions while retaining stamp duty at 4 per cent. on transactions over £500,000; and (b) abolishing the 1 per cent. rate of stamp duty on residential property transactions while leaving other rates and thresholds unchanged.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: If all lower rates of stamp duty on residential transactions were abolished and only the 4 per cent. rate for residential transactions over £500,000 was retained, the cost for 2007-08 is estimated at £4.3 billion. If the 1 per cent. rate of stamp duty for residential transactions between £125,001 and £250,000 was abolished, the cost for 2007-08 is estimated at £1 billion.